1. Klopp’s clever change swings the derby Liverpool’s way
Liverpool this weekend enjoyed the novelty of playing against 10 men, though were blessed Ibrahima Konate didn’t join Ashley Young in prematurely finishing the Merseyside derby.
Jurgen Klopp hinted after the game that he might have preferred to play 10 v 10, as it might have tempted Everton into being a bit more adventurous. Klopp has previously described breaking down a team in a deep, deep defensive block as one of the most difficult tasks in football, and he can no longer call on the brilliance of Roberto Firmino to do exactly that. (Firmino’s intelligence, touch, and link-up play meant he could help pick any lock.)
As Liverpool toiled against Everton’s 10 men on Saturday, the world appeared to be screaming at Klopp to move Trent Alexander-Arnold back to his traditional right-back position, and get the ball in the box. “Trent needs to play wide now, forget going central!”, tweeted Jamie Carragher.
Klopp’s game-changing move was very different. With Everton sacrificing a right-winger, Klopp introduced Darwin Nunez for Kostas Tsimikas and effectively played Luis Diaz as the world’s most attacking left-back. It decided the game: Diaz could now run from deep, which caused Everton huge bother. There are few dribblers in the league more difficult to dispossess than Diaz, and starting from deep allowed him space to build up some momentum.
Diaz might have had a penalty for a challenge in the penalty area minutes before he won the spot kick from which Mo Salah scored the opening goal. The provenance of both were almost identical: runs to the endline, starting from a deeper position. Joe Gomez was introduced for Diaz once Liverpool had something to protect, but it was a brilliant and counter-intuitive way of changing the game.
2. Are Manchester City growing conservative?
During his early struggles in English football – the Claudio Bravo Year, as it’s also known – Pep Guardiola stuck rigidly by his Barcelona principles, courting scorn after one heavy defeat by saying he “doesn’t coach tackles.”
Guardiola wasn’t for changing, however: in the memorable words of the Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke, he refused to meet TalkSPORT halfway. But that was then and this is now. Glance at a City teamsheet nowadays and you’d be forgiven for wondering whether Guardiola had become a disciple of the Church of Pulis, built upon four centre-halves and the Big Man Up Top.
Last season’s treble went to show that this was a brutally successful evolution, as City were retooled to become a ruthlessly efficient knockout team, one which was more decisive in both boxes.
But at what point does a focus on efficiency betray a shift to parsimony?
An interesting trend to follow for the next few months is the fact that City’s attacking output has dropped from its previous heights. They are top of the league and so it’s hardly hurting them, but nonetheless, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Brighton and Liverpool have all outscored City in the league so far this season. Nobody has a better defensive record after nine games, however.
James Yorke of StatsBomb dug into the numbers regarding non-penalty Expected Goals, and found that it’s been lower across the last six months than at any point over Guardiola’s reign.
This is partly explained by Kevin de Bruyne’s absence, but this version of City are more loyal to the traditional maxims of English football: attacks win games, but defences win titles.
3. Some light at the end of Chelsea’s tunnel
Mauricio Pochettino is presumably still wondering how on earth Chelsea let victory slip against Arsenal on Saturday evening. Chelsea remain a pretty callow side, filled with young players who are still tuning to the same wavelength as their team-mates. While the endgame left a bitter taste, Chelsea fans should be more encouraged than disheartened coming away from the game: their set-up was brilliant, and it stifled Arsenal.
Out of possession, Chelsea set up in a kind of 4-4-2, with Cole Palmer and Conor Gallagher leading the press ahead of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo. The quartet’s diligence and positioning completely disrupted Arsenal’s build-up play.
The extent of that disruption is seen in the meagre influence of Arsenal’s main playmakers. Oleksandr Zinchenko had just 34 touches before being hooked at half-time – his fewest number of touches in any of his league starts for Arsenal – while Martin Odegaard touched the ball just 37 times across his 78 minutes, his fifth-lowest figure in a single game since the start of last season.
Arsenal will take heart from playing poorly and managing to avoid defeat, but Chelsea are finally beginning to resemble a team rather than a loose collection of assets whose value Todd Boehly believes will appreciate.